


Scarlet Red

by Nanyoky



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Snow White Fusion, Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Dark Fantasy, Gen, Non-Linear Narrative, Snow-white and Rose-red Elements, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-20
Updated: 2017-05-20
Packaged: 2018-10-31 19:11:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10905657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanyoky/pseuds/Nanyoky
Summary: Prompt: Wanda-Snow-White (maybe Scarlet Red as a nickname?) runs away because she and her brother, co-heirs to the throne are attacked and almost killed. Maybe even here Pietro dies or "dies" (is captured). Wanda finds the witch hut and is unafraid or meets the dwarves - who don't necessarily have to be dwarves - and is unafraid and learns magic, and learns craft and when the witch tries to kill her, this time Wanda is prepared (the witch can be Ultron if you want, the evil queen Strucker and List, the dwarves can be the avengers if you want) and Wanda takes over the house, takes over the magic, and marches with the dwarf-Avengers to the castle she was driven from to fight (she does not expect to get Pietro back. So far as she knows her brother is dead) In the end, they win. In the end, the evil is defeated and maybe the find, buried in the castle, in a silver and crystal casket (a Cradle) Pietro, waiting to wake.





	Scarlet Red

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EssayOfThoughts](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/gifts).



> Cheesey italicized flashbacks like it's ff.net in 2007! Kurt Vonnegut can meet me in the pit.  
> Thank you for another fun prompt, EssayOfThoughts!  
> [The Mix](https://8tracks.com/nellmakinjams/scarlet-red)

Wanda had been running and walking and running again through the woods for an age. She knew her feet were bleeding, but it was nothing compared to her throat, raw from screaming and crying. She tried to draw up the red mist that lived in her veins, but it would not gather in her hands the way she wanted. Not when her mind could not focus on anything but the thud of arrows into flesh and the smell of blood.

It was past midnight and there was no light in the woods. The trees blocked out even the moon and stars. She tripped on loose stones and roots, but kept pushing, her breath rattling out in heavy sobs and shuddering in gasps as she ran. At last, a fallen branch sent her sprawling. Hands and face broken open in new bursts of pain as she hit ground, Wanda stayed where she was, curled up with her arms around her stomach as she cried. She had been running on pure instinct this whole time. But now she was forced to find a reason to get up again.

~

_Magical kingdoms were supposed to be ethereal and enchanted. That’s what people who ought to know thought. But people who ought to know often don’t know much, and when you are well past childhood and not allowed outside of the castle’s walls, magical kingdoms are very dull._

_“I want to go for a run.”_

_“Then run around the top of the wall.” Wanda sat at the edge of the well in the castle courtyard. “Maybe you’ll catch some sun.”_

_Pietro grimaced at the old joke, always so much paler than his twin, regardless of the season._

_“I don’t care about running on the wall. I want out into the forest. Like we used to.”_

_Wanda did not reply right away. She was just as restless as her twin, but feared her agreement would fuel their mutual fire and lead to disaster._

_“The king says we must stay inside to hone our skills. That it is dangerous for us outside.”_

_He grinned and joined her on the well wall. “Since when have we ever done what we are told?”_

_She smiled in return and tossed him a red apple._

~

“What’s this?”

Wanda woke to the creak of a bowstring. She blinked her eyes open to see a pair of heavy boots less than a foot from her nose. She should probably feel fear, but she couldn’t manage it.

“Well rise and shine, Honey.” The man let out a long, low whistle as she squinted up at him. “Someone’s done a number on you, huh?”

“Do with me what you will.” She dropped her head back to the ground, staring unseeing at the brush. “But I’d prefer a quick death.”

“Is that any way to talk to a man that shares his breakfast?” A gloved hand was thrust in her face. “Can you stand or do I have to carry you the whole twenty paces to the kitchen?”

Wanda took his hand, frowning slightly. He helped her to her feet and in the light of day, she saw what he meant. Just through the trees from where she had fallen, there was a sturdy cabin, its back to a rocky hill. The man helped her through the front door and set her down at a long table near a fireplace. Wanda stared at the glowing coals.

“Morning.” A second voice greeted the man. A woman. Wanda did not bother to turn to see her. “What’s that?”

“Back off, she’s _my_ breakfast. I get first pick.”

“Sam?” The woman called out before another voice joined them.

“Yes- oh. What’s that?”

“Clint’s breakfast. Looks like she needs some seasoning.”

The latest stranger rounded the table and kneeled in front of her.

“Hello there,” he offered a smile that showed a slight gap between his two front teeth. If she had been at all worried for her safety, this single detail would have been enough for her to trust him. “Don’t listen to those two. They like to think they’re funny.”

He reached out and pushed the hair back from her face. Wanda winced as some stuck in the cuts and scrapes on her cheek.

“Ooo- I’m sorry. Nat? Can you get me-“ a bowl of hot water and a clean cloth appeared at his shoulder. “Oh. Thanks.”

He dipped the cloth in the water and started to clean her face, loosening the scabs to free her hair.

“I’m Sam. What do they call you?”

When she didn’t answer, he offered his warm smile again.

“Hey- it’s okay if you’re on the run or something. We’re all wanted men- and women.”

“Wo _man_. Singular.” The second stranger corrected.

“Men and woman,” “Sam” conceded with a roll of the eyes clearly meant to make Wanda smile. She only stared. “The point is, we don’t talk. You’re safe here. But you don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want-“

“Scarlet Red.” She swallowed and tried again, as her voice had likely been too cracked and soft to hear. “In the village- they call me Scarlet Red.”

~

_Wanda giggled and shushed Pietro’s laughter as he helped her over the low spot in the garden wall._

_“You’re going to get us caught! Hurry up! Use your legs.”_

_“Shut up!” she hissed, gathering her layers of skirts at one hip with her free hand and gripping his own tight with the other while she found a foothold. “Why are you always so loud?”_

_“Because you are always here to talk us out of the trouble it gets us into.”_

_Wanda grinned as they finally gained enough purchase for him to lift her on top of the wall._

_“Of course.” She kept his hand in hers, even sitting firm on the stone. “We will not leave each other.”_

_He lifted her hand to press a kiss to it. “Never. So long as we live.”_

~

There were seven of them. Clint was the archer that had found her. Natasha was the aforementioned singular woman. Sam had been an army healer in their kingdom. Steve was older than he looked. Tony enchanted armor for warriors like Rhodey, his dearest friend. And Vision was his greatest creation.

It only took them a day to make her a bed and for Rhodey to go into the village to buy her blankets and clothes. It was like they were ready for her. Like she was expected.

The cuts and scrapes healed, but it was weeks before she even tried to use the magic in her veins again. She lay in the grass in front of the cabin and lifted her hands up in the air in front of her. They shook, just thinking of the last time she had used it. About arrows flying and armor clinking and red red blood soaking blue fabric.

She closed her eyes tight and called on the mist in her own blood.

“I _knew_ there was a good reason you ran away from wherever you came from.”

Wanda let the mist return to her hands and kept her eyes closed.

“I was leaving my husband. He beat me. I told you this.”

“And we all politely pretended to believe you.” Clint followed her inside.

Wanda meant to lock herself inside the pantry and ignore him, like a child having a tantrum, but they were all sitting at the table, waiting for her.

“Now, it’s time we told you who we are.”

~

_He picked her up and raced off into the trees. Wanda clung tight to him, but turned her face into the wind, tasting the fresh air. It seemed sweeter even than the garden. He set her down once they were well into the trees and they walked together, laughing. Giddy with their stolen hour of freedom. "You shouldn't be out here, young masters."_

~

They explained everything. How they had come across the sea to this kingdom to help bring order to the mess of a place that had raised her. Wanda considered hating them for it. For sitting in their snug cabin while they had been raised on the streets, then taken to the castle once word got out that two orphans in the village possessed incredible gifts. Scarlet Red and Silver White, they had flashed through the streets- two blurs of color. Until the day they were picked up and stowed away like weapons in an armory.

She decided not to be angry. They were far too useful.

~

_Wanda stopped and opened her palm at her side. Pietro took her hand as they both turned at the familiar, inhuman voice. The suit of armor was their least favorite guard. Perhaps because it didn't have eyes, just a red-orange glow deep in its visor._

_"We aren't running away, Ultron." Perhaps worse than the lack of eyes was that the thing insisted on having a name. Or simply that it insisted on anything at all. "We were just going for a walk."_

_"Yes. And now I am just returning you to the king. Strucker wants the two of you home. Immediately."_

_It happened so fast that no matter how many times she thought it over later, Wanda still wasn't sure what happened. All she knew was that there were suddenly dozens of the empty armor guards melting out of the trees. Pietro crouched to pick her up but something grasped her arm and she screamed. He called out just as loud, but then there was that terrible thud and he choked._

_Her scarlet mist tore out of her like a living thing, knocking them all away as she fell to her knees._

~

Wanda had not known the extent of her friends’ skills until the day arrived. She saw Clint pick off guard after guard from distances most archers would not even attempt. Natasha dropped silently from trees onto men’s shoulders, fitting wire across their throats and pulling back hard before they could draw the breath to scream. The Vision, made of some kind of magic himself, could sap the life from the empty guards with only a touch.

But Wanda did not waste time watching them as they killed. She had her own purpose. It made the red mist in her blood strong as she let it seep out into her hands and out onto the ground. It crawled out ahead of her like water flooding into the hull of a ship, crawling up into the empty guards and expelling what animated them.

She could hear Steve shouting instructions, then pleas at her back, but she ignored him. There was nothing that could stop her now that her vengeance was in sight. Guards, both empty and flesh, fell before her as she made her way up the stairs and to the tower. Her scarlet mist lit the way through the stone passageways as she stepped over the armor and bodies.

~

_Wanda was being pulled through the trees, a leather gloved hand over her mouth, keeping her screams and sobs quiet under the clatter of steel as the empty guards trotted through the forest._

_"Shut up, I'm telling you..."_

_It wasn't one of the empty guards, but one of the enchanted ones. Men of flesh and blood with their wills taken by a scepter kept locked away in the king's tower. But the twins had always thought of this one as halfway between the two categories. He had his metal arm around her waist as he dragged her through the brush, away from the metal men._

_"Orders were—" he muttered under his breath as they went—"kill your brother, bring you back so the king can feel the last beat of your bloody heart right in his hand. But you gave us the slip, didn't you?"_

~

The door burst inward and she stepped through slowly, not knowing what she might find on the other side. There was blood on the wall already. It made her pulse pound. Not in fear, but in anger. She had told the others that the king was meant for her.

But it was not any of her new friends that had killed Strucker.

“I wondered how strong your powers would be, given the chance to truly test them.”

She could hear Ultron’s joints as he moved. Metal against metal. Grating. She sent her mist out over the floor toward him, letting it wash over the king’s body as it went. When it reached Ultron, it lifted him into the air and brought him towards her.

“Very good.”

He hated his voice. She wanted to rip it out of him. The metal of his body creaked and groaned as her mist held him.

“Wanda-“ At last, his hateful voice held a note of desperation as she built pressure with her red. “You can’t- you will not survive this primitive world. They will never suffer a witch to live.”

“I have not lived since the last you saw me.”

It felt right to crush the empty metal frame and extinguish the magic that animated it. Right, but hallow and useless. She stood in the tower, having accomplished all she could want with what was left of her life, she struggled to find reason to descend the stairs again.

~

_The metal armed guard’s mind must have somehow been returned to him by the burst of magic from her when Pietro had fallen. She could incapacitate him with her mist, she knew. But at the moment, Wanda didn't much care what happened to her. He gave her a rough shake as he went._

_"Isn't that right? Knocked us all out and headed north, didn't you? And luckily, I saw you go and chased you a ways, but you knocked me out again. But at least I can go back and tell the king you were headed north west, right? Towards the river. Not east towards the hills."_

_At last, he stopped and set her down._

_"I'm gunna take my hand off your mouth now, and you're on your own then, got it? Remember: there's rebels in the hills. Dangerous folk. Might even feed a skinny stranger with glow eyes. Might offer her a place to hide too. That's what kind of dangerous folk live in the hills."_

_Nothing he said stuck in her mind. All she could think was Pietro, Pietro, Pietro bleeding, Pietro in pain, Pietro dying._

_He lifted his hand from her mouth and when she still didn't move, gave her back a soft shove._

_"I gotta throw rocks at you like a dog or something? Go!"_

_His shout triggered something in her legs and she started to run._

~

Slowly, Wanda became aware that she was not alone. She turned on her heel and her mist shot out to catch the other presence in the room. The woman did not scream or make any noise at all. Her eyes glowed an unnatural blue. Wanda blinked, then released her, allowing her mist to wash her irises back to their natural brown.

“I-“ the woman took a breath, steadying herself on the wall as her will was returned to her. “I have to-“

“You have to do nothing.” It felt like a mercy Wanda wasn’t sure was hers to give. But there was power in giving something that didn’t belong to her, so she gave. “You have been enslaved. But you are free now. Go home to your family, if you have any left.”

“No. You do not understand.” The woman took a torch from the wall and gestured toward the stairs. “I’m a healer. And they- they wanted- they didn’t want to waste such a valuable resource…”

From that moment, Wanda knew, and the hope that rose up in her chest was a sort of pain she had never felt before.

~

_He felt fear more than pain when the arrows hit. Fear only a little for himself. An intense flash of it. Like the touch of a hot kettle before the long aching burn that came after. The long burn that was fear for Wanda._

_“A waste.”_

_Ultron and his hateful voice. Pietro could hear his own breath rattling out, weaker and weaker. His vision was already gone, but Wanda’s screams had died away and it was all he could think of. She wasn’t dead. He would know that, he was sure._

_“I- I would like to try on this one. The Cradle.”_

_He swayed on his knees, and there was suddenly a small hand on his chest, gentle and careful as it steadied him. All the same, it wasn’t Wanda’s, so he tried to pull away._

_“Do what you like with the corpse, Mistress Cho. It is of no use to the king.”_

_Pietro didn’t feel anything, but he knew the snapping sound he heard was the arrows in his own flesh. But he did feel them being pulled out. Something weak and strangled tore out of his throat._

_“Shhh-“ the soft, anxious voice was close to his ear and shaking. “I don’t know how long I have before they notice and take my mind again. But if I can just get you to the Cradle- Please- just- just hold on a little while, alright?”_

The next conscious thought he had was that there was the distinct sound of crystal tapping. At last, something slid above him and he knew from the first hitch of breath. He sat up the moment Wanda’s lips fell on his face.


End file.
